The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-03-12
FISH HATCHERIES.
How the California Institution PROVIDES
the Future supply of Salmon.

How the California Institution Provides
the Future supply of Salmon.
How do fish hatch? In what manner
do they come from the spawnP How
many can explain the growth OF fish
from the spawn to the minnow? Proba-
bly, not one in thousand, and yet fish
as an article of diet ranks high. If any
person had asked the editor those ques-
tons last week, he probably would have
answered, 'just like chicken" if he
had answered at all. Now, however,
through the kindness of Dibble and
Shelley of the State salmon hatchery,
we are able to tell what we know about
the Matching of fish and it will not take
much space. either, although to describe
the culture of fish correctly would fill
several columns. The outfit provided
by the State to keep up the supply OF
salmon consists of large building, a
number of fumes about two feet wide,
one foot in depth, and running the en-
tire length of the building, and large
number of square box sleeves or prop
agating baskets with bottoms of wire
crossed so as to leave holes about one
fourth of an inch square. Through
these fumes the water is allowed to run
in small, steady stream. The salmon
are caught in traps or nets when on
their way to spawn and the eggs stripped
from them. These are fecundated
the mass placed in the sleeves, and a
steady stream of water allowed to run
over them. The water of Hat Creek
has temperature of So >, and in this
it requires about one hundred DAYS for
the eggs to hatch. From 500 to So . is
the best temperature, and with
such they can be Matched in
six weeks. After the growth OF
the egg has begun the mass separates
and each one becomes about as large as
big pea. Those are the head and tail
of the minnow, and soon the little fish
bursts the shell, coming out on the top,
and has the appearance of a small tad
pole with q terribly distended stomach,
but instead of discarding the old abode
it is attached firmly to the minnow and
becomes its supply of food for ten days
or more, when it is able to rustic. As
soon as Matched the minnow wriggles
around until it falls through one of the
holes in the bottom Of the box, when it
is carried along the bottom of the trough
until cross-piece or rifle is reached.
Here they gather, gallon or more in a
plece, and keep up an eternal darling
and diving until the period of their i'm
prisonmont has expired. So long as the
food sack lasts they will not eat, but
with the exhaustion of this natural sup
ply an appetite is developed, which,
properly satisfied, transforms the little
'inch-long samlet into the ten and twenty
pound beauties with sides of silver, that
gladden. the hearts of the fishermen and
tickle the palate of the epicure. When
about ten days or two weeks old they
are turned into the stream and soon find
their way to the shallow spots where
they feed and grow until large enough
to venture into deeper water.
Mr.. Shcbley states that while in the
open stream not more than one egg in
thousand will grow to be fish of any
size; in the hatchery IS per cent. can be
turned out, and even 80 per cent. under
favorable circumstances. And this is
how salmon Matching looks to one who
has never been there before. Shasta
(Cal. Mail.